Playing cards are used in a wide variety of games. When playing cards are used to play games in a casual setting, such as in the home, the cards are generally processed manually. In other words, the cards may be shuffled by hand, dealt by hand and the like.
In many environments, hand processing of cards for game play is undesirable or has drawbacks. For example, in a casino environment is important to ensure that the cards are not tampered with (where that risk increases the more the cards are handled by hand), that the cards are well shuffled (thus ensuring a high degree of randomization), and that the card handling is expedited so that games can be played quickly.
Thus, to address these issues, several card-handling devices have been created. For example, to facilitate thorough and quick shuffling of cards, various mechanical or electro-mechanical card shuffling devices have been developed. In addition, other types of card handling, receiving, transporting and retaining devices have been developed. The industry continually seeks for improvements to such devices to further increase the speed of shuffling, the ease of use, and other aspects of the devices.